It’s no joke: The Orillia District Chamber of Commerce and ServiceOntario will move to their new home April 1.
It’s been a long time coming.
The chamber had wanted to purchase the old train station at 150 Front St. S. — its current home — and then considered moving into the legion. Neither worked out. The city put the train station on the market, and relocating to the legion wasn’t financially feasible.
The chamber announced in March 2018 it had found a new spot: the former Curves gym in Unit 6 of the plaza at 575 West St. S. A year later, chamber president Dean Beers is excited to move in.
“We really hope to make a good, fresh start,” he said. “We are trying to implement a lot of things to make it a better experience for people.”
The current space is more compartmentalized than the West Street location, which will have an open concept.
“It’ll be newer and a lot brighter than the existing location,” Beers said. “The whole visual concept will be a lot better. It’ll be good for the staff as well.”
The lease at Front Street was to expire last October, but the chamber secured an extension from the city. That lease will be up at the end of April.
“The renovations did take a little longer than we thought originally, but we wanted to make sure we had all the Is dotted and Ts crossed,” Beers said.
The chamber will hold a grand opening at the new location, but the date has not yet been determined.
Orillia's ServiceOntario office will be closed March 30 as officials prepare to move to the new spot.
The Ontario Northland bus service will continue to use the former train station as its depot until further notice.
